A Russellville School District principal has been hired to become the assistant superintendent at the Jonesboro School District, beginning this summer.

Brenda Tash, currently a principal at Center Valley Elementary, was hired to the position after the Jonesboro Westside School Board accepted the superintendent’s recommendation to hire her at its monthly meeting earlier this week.

“I’m very excited for the opportunity,” Tash said. “It’s a great opportunity for my career. It’s going to be a new challenge for me, but I think I’m going to enjoy it.”

Tash, who has worked as the Center Valley principal for seven years, has worked previously as the K-12 literary specialist for the Cabot School District. She has earned degrees from both the University of Central Arkansas and Arkansas Tech University.

The new job will include an increase in responsibility for Tash, but she said she is ready for the challenge.

“I’ll be the assistant superintendent over curriculum instruction, so there will be more responsibility,” she said. “It’s just different from being a building principal, so I think that I’ll have a lot of new things to learn.

“But I’m looking forward to that part of it, to the challenge. It’s a good district. I’ve met most of the teachers and all of the principals, and it’s a good group of people working over there.”

While she is moving on to a job that will further her career in education administration, she’ll miss the friends she has made, both at Center Valley and Russellville.

“I’m excited about the new opportunity and the challenges that I’m going to have, but I am going to miss my Center Valley family and all the teachers and parents and kids,” she said.